Very few have seen and will see the New York theatre’s most sensational experience of 2016-17. On Wednesday Daniel Craig, David Oyelowo and a stunning cast will give their last performance of “Othello” directed by Sam Gold at New York Theater Workshop. I saw it last night, and all you can say really is Wow.

The very small theater has been totally rebuilt by Andrew Lieberman in plain wood slabs and risers as theater if not in the round, on a runway. (It’s kind of a non-set in a non-theater, making the play all the more mesmerizing.)

Then there’s the audience: last night it was Bette Midler and her husband, Tony Goldwyn, Richard La Gravenese, Bob and Lynn Balaban, Blythe Danner with her director son Jake Paltrow and his photographer wife Taryn Simon, “Moonlight” producer Dede Gardner and actress Britt Marling, and several younger actors. Plus it seemed like the top row of one of the three small sections had been given to school kids.

Barbara Broccoli, who inherited the producing of the James Bond movies with her step brother, had this amazing idea, and it works: to feature her James Bond, Daniel Craig, doing what he really does best– theater. So he’s Iago to Oyelowo’s Othello, and it’s a sight to behold. Craig is excellent. Not taking anything away from him, Oyelowo is boldly the best theater actor of his generation.

It’s a muscular, athletic production. Everyone in the cast with the exception of Rachel Brosnahan (Desdemona) looks like they’ve been to Barry’s Boot camp. Gold has turned Othello’s followers into soldiers of fortune. But their battles, while in their heads, are also played out on a plain stage strewn with mattresses and machine guns. There’s lots of humor, and a party scene (rivaling the one in “The Present” which I wrote about yesterday) where everyone joins in on Drake’s “Hotline Bling.”

But it’s Shakespeare, and extremely adherent to the real play, no kidding. Oyelowo, Craig and Brosnahan are joined by the equally excellent Finn Wittrock as Cassio, Michael Maher as Rodrigo, and Marsha Stephanie Blake as Emilia. The whole crew should be cited, but I’d like to point out lighting by Jane Cox and fight direction by Thomas Schall.

Will Broccoli bring this back, or move it somewhere bigger next fall for a limited run? Up in the air. She told me she can’t film it– there’s no way to film it, although I hope someone makes a video for posterity. It’s just one of those moments in the theater completely unforgettable. That’s a lot to say about a play three hours and 10 minutes long, in a theater that has no snacks or drinks and it isn’t near anything. (New York Theater Workshop does have a water dispenser, and paper cups.)

“Othello” was written by Shakespeare in 1603, and its well known themes include race, miscegenation, revenge, and deceit. It’s a tragedy, with rueful comic moments. This production is equal to the best that the Public Theater ever offered during its run of the Bard’s 38 plays. It’s absolutely fascinating to watch Craig, who we pretty much see as James Bond, as the Machiavellian Iago, scheming, charming, and villainous.

But you’d think after 500 years Othello would finally catch on and see what’s being done to him. Alas, no. Plus, Oyelowo’s reading of the tragedy is so incendiary you feel like you’re hearing this story for the first time. A few times there were actual gasps from the small audience. Now, that’s theater.

You think you know Cate Blanchett from her sensational film résumé and two Oscars. But you haven’t seen her on stage. A limited group got to see her a couple of years ago with Joel Edgerton in “A Streetcar Named Desire” out in Brooklyn at BAM. But now here she is, at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on West 47th St. and you know she’s got “The Present” in hand.

Blanchett’s director-writer husband Andrew Upton has adapted Anton Chekhov’s unfinished play sometimes called “Wild Honey” or “Platonov” for his wife’s Broadway debut. They’ve brought over members of their Sydney theater group for the limited run (through March 19th). Michael Frayn directed Ian McKellen in a hit version in 1986 in New York.

Upton’s version is pretty great and very different than the Frayn one; Chekhov is probably amused by it in heaven. Upton has retained a lot of the Chekhov but updated it. You do hear the ‘f’ word a lot, references to climate change, and a lot of The Clash used as bumper music. This is not your grandad’s Chekhov. He’s also condensed four acts into two, with a running time (including intermission) of three hours.

Believe or not, the time passes quickly. Upton has found lots of humor and spread it wisely. The audience I saw it with last night was enthralled. There are a lot of laughs. while still retaining the drama of the main character– a rogue schoolmaster named Platonov (Richard Roxburgh) who cannot keep seducing the ladies at his old friend Anna Petrovna’s (Blanchett) Russian estate. Her friends have arrived for her 40th birthday, and you know, a lot will be revealed about her older husband, her three stepsons, and miscellaneous guests.

Give Blanchett a lot of credit because Platonov is the main character no matter how much is updated for Anna. Roxborough doesn’t steal the show, he just occupies the center of it, and he’s a revelation. Even Blanchett knows it. When I saw her after the show, the first thing she said to me was, “How did you like Richard?”

Let’s say Roxburgh leads the magnificent supporting cast. But “The Present” cast is an ensemble, only that Blanchett cannot keep from being the centerpiece. Watching her is seeing a legend at work in her heyday. She is so comfortable on stage you know she could keep going after the third hour. She’s loving Anna, and all the plot twists and turns. The machinations at the estate never get dull.

Indeed, there are fireworks, explosions, gun shots, smoke. Again, no one is knitting on the front porch. And a party sequence toward the end of Act 1 is enough reason to see this production again and again. Anna’s 40th birthday party literally explodes on stage, and the denouement after this catalyst is equal to its highest points. Irish director John Crowley brings Upton’s ideas to life, and it’s interesting– the Irish really get Chekhov. Three years ago I saw an Irish adaptation (directed by Max Stafford Clark, starring Trudie Styler) that got raves. Who knew?

But do see Cate Blanchett now if you can. This is like seeing Janet McTeer–she’s the real real thing, we’ll be talking about Anna Petrovna long after the show closes. And the Tony Awards– this is for them.